Nearly 1.65 lakh a/c holders avail overdraft under PMJDY

The government today said nearly 1.65 lakh Jan Dhan account holders, of the total 18 crore accounts opened under the scheme, have availed overdraft facility.

More than Rs 22,000 crore have been mobilised under the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) and 15.74 crore Rupay debit cards have been issued, Finance Ministry said in a statement.

"Now, the focus of PMJDY has moved from account opening to the provision of cash-out facilities at an approachable distance to reap the real benefits of PMJDY," it said.

Banks have been directed to disburse overdraft facility up to Rs 5,000 under PMJDY and Aadhaar number is not mandatory for this.

"In this regard, Indian Banks Association (IBA) has been asked to issue revised guidelines to all banks. Overdraft facility has been availed by 1,64,962 account holders as on September 1, 2015," the statement added.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had launched this financial inclusion scheme on August 28, 2014.

"The achievement under PMJDY is heading towards saturation. Initial demand for bank accounts was expected to be around 7.5 crore. However, so far close to 18 crore accounts have been opened," it said.

To facilitate cash-out facility, there are nearly 1.26 lakh branches of scheduled commercial banks as on March 2015, of which 48,557 (38.58 per cent) are in rural areas.

These banks have over 1.84 lakh ATMs as on June 2015. In the year 2014-15, 8,227 branches and 21,197 ATMs were added to the network.

Also, limit for cash withdrawal at POS (for debit cards and open system prepaid cards issued by banks in India) has been doubled to Rs 2,000 per day in Tier III to Tier VI centres.

The Finance Ministry said one of the basic objectives of financial inclusion is the delivery of financial services at an affordable cost to the disadvantaged and low income groups.

"To achieve this objective, banks are not levying any SMS/message charges on PMJDY accounts and basic Savings Bank deposits accounts," it added.